Maybe I can help a little.
A teener can barely pull one 500 at the best of times.
You want to build an engine with a 292 that will barely pull 10 inches vacuum at idle. Your 500s will see that as, " oh my gosh, he's deep into the peddle, what shall I do?"So the first problem is the powervalve. Then, because of the low idle vacuum,and the dual idle circuits,and the fact that you will a need progressive linkage,(so that you won't get a sore neck,or spill your coffee,or actually take on passengers, etc) but both carbs have to be engaged at idle to prevent one half of the engine running lean, well let's just say this; if you can make it idle decent at 10 inches, and 750rpm(like a typical 4bbl), you are a pretty good tuner.
Next is putting it in gear. Let's say you did get it to idle nice,at 750. Now you want to drive it, so you put it into gear; It's a good thing you have a 2800TC....But the idle drops anyway, cuz that's what automatics do.Now you have a new issue to deal with.The vacuum drops, and hopefully the power valve stays closed; so you only have to retune the idle, for the new lower rpm.You finally figure out it's almost hopeless so you start dinking with timing, and pretty soon you got a nice idle out of her.Let's move on.
Next is tip-in.You step on the gas, and pow, it stalls. What happened? You guessed it; that huge plenum is full of air with very little fuel in it, and your engine did not appreciate you trying to dump it into the cylinders all at once. You are gonna need some serious pump-shot. But here-in lies a problem.You are at this time operating on just one carb, and one pump, and it's on the end of the plenum, and at least 2 cylinders are gonna be very lean, with another 2 cylinders being a little less than very lean, and all the rest will still be lean, cuz one pump just can't do it! So you are gonna want to bring the second carb on line. That will work. But now with 4 venturies operating,every time you step on the pedal, it's like a switch that goes from idle to "let's boogie", and it's hard to drive it at low speed, and of course the idle is all messed up again.....So you put it back to progressive,and you sit down and think it over. And then it comes to you; "how about dinking around with the float level? Maybe it will be easier for the transfers to get going, with a slightly higher float level?" Well that seems like a really good idea, so you try it, and try it and try it, and pretty soon you got it sorta working, to the point that the engine will take some pedal, and you can more than just idle it around the block.It actually seems to be working....so you lay into it a bit.And the chit starts happening again.
Well by now you get the picture. T-rams, big cams and street,really should not appear in the same paragraph.
But if you really want that T-ram, back up the bus.
Put a little cam into a little motor that idles at 700or less, and at least 15inches, and run it non-progressive. It will run pretty good, and; It will be killer,in looks at least.
Now I must add that it can be made to run on a 360. It's just very hard with a very low idle vacuum.
If I,had to have,a T-ram;
I would put it on a 360Magnum.With maybe a 220*@050 or less, roller-cam. I would get/have made, a cam with extremely fast and high-lift lobes. And put springs of death on the valves, and a rev-limiter, and 1.6 arms.Since the cam will be done around 5500,and it ain't gonna be track motor,I would not spend a ton of money on porting the Magnum heads.And I would set the rev-limiter to whatever the cam guy told me to.I would be prepared to run premium when in WOT, and to that end, would pump the compressions up, to nearly as high as I dare. And I would run file-fit plasma-moly rings or gapless.And with 4 float bowls, I would run a mechanical fuel pump. Any old street ignition will be fine, so long as it can reliably fire the Accel square SuperCoil.But tuning will still not be easy.
That's what I would do.
An engine like this will not do that well at the races, but it will be killer. And not just looks. It will be frightening on the street. Absolutely scary, cuz, Unless you tubbed that Dart, the best you can put back there is 275s. You will have a really,really,........really, hard time keeping the back, in the back.
Buy extra insurance.....
